Abstract.

"Marine environments wherein long-term microbial oxygen consumption exceeds oxygen replenishment can be associated with oxygen minimum zones (OMZ). The Bay of Bengal OMZ (BOB-OMZ) is one of the most intense OMZs globally. To assess the contribution of bacterial oxygen consumption to oxygen loss in BOB-OMZ, we measured bacterial production (BP), temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen (DO) in the whole water column. [...]".

 

Source: Frontiers in Microbiology
Authors: Wenqi Ye et al.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1250575

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Abstract.

"The production by microorganisms of nitrous oxide (N2O), a trace gas contributing to global warming and stratospheric ozone depletion, is enhanced around the oceanic oxygen minimum zones (OMZs). The production constitutes an important source of atmospheric N2O. Although an OMZ is found in the northern part of the eastern Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal (BoB), two earlier studies conducted during the later phase of winter monsoon (February) and spring intermonsoon (March–April) found quite different magnitudes of N2O accumulation. [...]".

 

Source: Wiley Online Library
Authors: Sakae Toyoda et al.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GB007689

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Abstract.

"The Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal are cul-de-sacs of the northern Indian Ocean, and they contain more than half of the world's Oxygen Minimum Zones (OMZs). The current study reviews the vast and advancing literature on the oceanographic settings that lead to distinct OMZs in the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal and links them with the copepods thriving there, their status, and likely adaptations. The Arabian Sea has a thicker perennial subsurface OMZ (∼1000 m) than the Bay of Bengal (∼500 m), which is linked to high plankton production via upwelling and winter convection in the former and river influx and mesoscale eddies in the latter. [...]."

 

Source: Science Direct 
Authors: Vidhya Vijayasenan et al.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pocean.2022.102839

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Abstract. 

"Ocean oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) around the global ocean are expanding both horizontally and vertically. Multiple studies have identified the significant influence of anoxic conditions (≤1 μM O2) on marine prokaryotic communities and biogeochemical cycling of elements. However, little attention has been paid to the expanding low-oxygen zones where the oxygen level is still above the anoxic level. Here, we studied the abundance and taxonomic and functional profiles of prokaryotic communities in the Bay of Bengal (BoB), where the oxygen concentration is barely above suboxic level (5 μM O2). [...]". 

 

Source: Microbiology Spectrum
Authors: Bowei Gu et al. 
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1128/spectrum.00892-21

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Abstract. 

"Picoeukaryotic communities respond rapidly to global climate change and play an important role in marine biological food webs and ecosystems. The formation of oxygen minimum zones (OMZ) is facilitated by the stratification of seawater and higher primary production in the surface layer, and the marine picoeukaryotic community this low-oxygen environment is topic of interest. To better understand the picoeukaryotic community assembly mechanisms in an OMZ, we collected samples from the Bay of Bengal (BOB) in October and November 2020 and used 18S rDNA to study the picoeukaryotic communities and their community assembly mechanisms that they are controlled by in deep-sea and hypoxic zones. The results show that deterministic and stochastic processes combine to shape picoeukaryotic communities in the BOB. [...]".

 

Source: Science Direct

Authors: Zhuo Chen et al.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.152862

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Abstract.

"The Bay of Bengal (BoB) has long stood as a biogeochemical enigma, with subsurface waters containing extremely low, but persistent, concentrations of oxygen in the nanomolar range which – for some, yet unconstrained, reason – are prevented from becoming anoxic. One reason for this may be the low productivity of the BoB waters due to nutrient limitation and the resulting lack of respiration of organic material at intermediate waters. [...]"

Source: Biogeosciences
Authors: Carolin R. Löscher et al.
DOI: 10.5194/bg-17-851-2020

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Abstract.

"Occurrence of intense oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) is known in the Bay of Bengal (BoB), but it has been recently reported to have become more acute and is at its tipping point. Here, we show that the intensification of OMZ to acute condition is a random and short-term rather than perennial phenomenon based on re-evaluation of old and recent information in the BoB. Short-term modifications in dissolved oxygen (DO) in the OMZ are caused by balance among physical forcings: salinity stratification, occurrence of cyclonic (CE), and anticyclonic eddies (ACE). [...]"

Source: Journal of Earth System Science
Authors: B Sridevi and V V S S Sarma
DOI: 10.1007/s12040-020-1376-2

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Abstract.

"The Bay of Bengal hosts persistent, measurable, but sub-micromolar, concentrations of oxygenin its oxygen-minimum zone (OMZ). Such low-oxygen conditions are not necessarily rare in theglobal ocean and seem also to characterize the OMZ of the Pescadero Basin in the Gulf of California,as well as the outer edges of otherwise anoxic OMZs, such as can be found, for example, in theEastern Tropical North Pacific. We show here that biological controls on oxygen consumption arerequired to allow the semistable persistence of low-oxygen conditions in OMZ settings; otherwise,only small changes in physical mixing or rates of primary production would drive the OMZ betweenanoxic and oxic states with potentially large swings in oxygen concentration. [...]"

Source: Journal of Marine Research
Authors: Donald E. Canfield et al.
 

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Abstract.

"The Bay of Bengal hosts persistent, measurable, but sub-micromolar, concentrations of oxygen in its oxygen-minimum zone (OMZ). Such low-oxygen conditions are not necessarily rare in the global ocean and seem also to characterize the OMZ of the Pescadero Basin in the Gulf of California, as well as the outer edges of otherwise anoxic OMZs, such as can be found, for example, in the Eastern Tropical North Pacific. We show here that biological controls on oxygen consumption are required to allow the semistable persistence of low-oxygen conditions in OMZ settings; otherwise, only small changes in physical mixing or rates of primary production would drive the OMZ between anoxic and oxic states with potentially large swings in oxygen concentration. [...]"

Source: Journal of Marine Research 
Authors: Don E. Canfield et al.

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Abstract.

"The Northern Indian Ocean host two recognized Oxygen Minimum Zones (OMZ): one in the Arabian Sea and the other in the Bay of Bengal region. The next-generation sequencing technique was used to understand the total bacterial diversity from the surface sediment of off Goa within the OMZ of Arabian Sea, and from off Paradip within the OMZ of Bay of Bengal. [...]"

Source: Biogeosciences (preprint)
Authors: Jovitha Lincy and Cathrine Manohar
DOI: 10.5194/bg-2019-330

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"COLOMBO, April 11 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's Marine Environment Protection Authority on Thursday urged countries along the Bay of Bengal to draft stronger laws against polluting the oceans due to the formation of a dead zone in the center of the Bay of Bengal.

General Manager of the Marine Environment Protection Authority, Dr. P.B. Teney told Xinhua that authorities had discovered the formation of a dead zone in the Bay of Bengal which had spread across a 6000 square kilometer area and was 100 meters to 400 meters in depth. [...]"

Source: XinhuaNet

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Abstract.

"Nitrate limits productivity in much of the ocean. Nitrate residence time is a few thousand years and changes in nitrate loss could influence ocean productivity. A major sinks for nitrate is denitrification and anaerobic ammonia oxidation in the oxygen minimum zones (OMZs). The Bay of Bengal OMZ is anomalous because large amounts of nitrate loss do not occur there, while nitrate is removed in the nearby OMZ of the Arabian Sea. Observations of nitrate and oxygen made over 5 years by 20 profiling floats equipped with chemical sensors in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea are used to understand why nitrate is removed rapidly in the Arabian Sea, but not in the Bay of Bengal. [...]"

Source: Geophysical Research Letters
Authors: Kenneth S. Johnson, Stephen C. Riser and M. Ravichandran
DOI: 10.1029/2018GL079881

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Abstract.

"Effects of tropical cyclones (TCs) on dissolved oxygen (DO) in subsurface waters (20–200 m) over the Oxygen Minimum Zones (OMZs) in the Bay of Bengal (BoB) are examined based on Argo and satellite data. Five TCs (Hudhud, Five, Vardah, Maarutha and Mora) during 2013–2018 are considered. Analyses reveal three types of DO temporal variability caused by the storm-induced mixing and upwelling. The first type features temporal DO increases in subsurface waters (37–70 m) caused mainly by intense vertical mixing and downwelling. [...]"

Source: Science of the Total Environment
Authors: Huabing Xu et al.
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.12.384

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Abstract.

"Intense oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) occurs in the mid‐depth of the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP), Arabian Sea (AS), and Bay of Bengal (BoB). However, the occurrence of anammox/denitrification was reported only in the ETP and AS and its absence in the BoB is attributed to presence of traces of dissolved oxygen (DO). Anticyclonic Eddies (ACE) supply high nutrient, organic‐rich and oxygen poor waters from the coastal upwelling regions leading to strengthening of OMZ in the offshore of AS and ETP.  [...]"

Source: Biogeosciences
Authors: V. V. S. S. Sarma, T. V. S. Udaya Bhaskar
DOI: 10.1029/2018JG004447

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Abstract.

"The present study investigated the impacts of treated effluent discharge on physicochemical and biological properties of coastal waters from three pharmaceuticals situated along the coast of Visakhapatnam (SW Bay of Bengal). Seawater samples were collected (during the months of December 2013, March 2014 and April 2014) from different sampling locations (Chippada (CHP), Tikkavanipalem (TKP) and Nakkapalli (NKP)) at 0- and 30-m depths within 2-km radius (0.5 km = inner, 1 km = middle and 2 km = outer sampling circles) from the marine outfall points. [...]"

Source: Environmental Monitoring and Assessment
Authors: Aziz Ur Rahman Shaik et al.
DOI: 10.1007/s10661-017-6344-1

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Abstract.

"The combination of high primary productivity and weak ventilation in the Arabian Sea (AS) and Bay of Bengal (BoB) generates vast areas of depleted oxygen, known as Oxygen Minimum Zones (OMZs). The AS OMZ is the world's thickest and hosts up to 40% of global denitrification. In contrast, the OMZ in the BoB is weaker and denitrification free. Using a series of model simulations, we show that the deeper remineralization depth (RD) in the BoB, potentially associated with organic matter aggregation with riverine mineral particles, contributes to weaken its OMZ. [...]"

Source: Geophysical Research Letters
Authors: Muchamad Al Azhar, Zouhair Lachkar, Marina Lévy, Shafer Smith
DOI: 10.1002/2017GL075157

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